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SECTION HEADER
FROM THE
POLICY DESK
Recent submissions
In our submission to the National Health Board on the
Health Information Security Framework, we supported
the need for standards around health information
security, but stressed that, to be useful, these standards
(and related policies) must be pragmatic and reflect
current practice. We are concerned that some areas
of the HISF may be impractical and lag behind current
practice, with the widespread use of mobile and non-
organisation owned equipment by doctors as part of
their work. We believe it is unrealistic to expect users of
such devices to stop using them until the development
of clear and unambiguous standards, and suggest
that greater emphasis be placed on educating users
as to how to protect the confidentiality of the data they
access/transmit.
In our submission to the HQSC on the Atlas of Healthcare
Variation: Polypharmacy in older people, we considered
the main value of the Atlas to be the detection of large
statistical signals (variations) that should be viewed strictly
as hypothesis-generating only and a prompt for further,
deeper investigation in order to confidently generate
meaningful and clinically helpful conclusions.
We believe that polypharmacy is only useful as a quality
indicator to the extent that it acts as a marker for
inappropriate pharmacy. In many cases, polypharmacy, as
defined, may be clinically appropriate.
Click on the article to view submission.
To view all submissions, CLICK HERE
62
NZMA NEWS
Our submission to Parliament’s Justice and Electoral
Committee on Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Extended
licensing hours during Rugby World Cup) Bill, outlined the
NZMA’s objections to the provisions of the Bill. We pointed
out that Cabinet explicitly considered scenarios such as
the upcoming Rugby World Cup when establishing the
current system for Special Licence applications in 2012.
Wecongratulated the Asthma Society on leading the development
of the draft National Respiratory Strategy, and suggested it may
be useful to refer to a ‘health as an investment’ approach rather
than focus on costs. This is relevant when describing interventions directly
relating to treatment, but even more so for upstream interventions such
as improving health literacy and improving housing. We also suggest
broadening the indicators to include the impact on individuals, families and
communities.